


Will Treat Small Animals

by BaronNomaw



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-16
Updated: 2016-08-16
Packaged: 2018-08-09 05:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7788256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaronNomaw/pseuds/BaronNomaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione follows up after the Ferret Incident.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Will Treat Small Animals

 

The Common Room was still in stitches over what had happened, and eventually Hermione couldn't listen to it anymore. She stood up. "Can I use the Map for a bit, Harry?" she asked.

Harry frowned up at her. "Why?"

"No reason." She shrugged, but then realized that there was no chance at all the boys wouldn't wonder. What would shut down their curiosity fastest? Aha. "Well – a boy," she admitted, truthfully. She ducked her head. "Don't ask. Just let me borrow it. I'll bring it back."

Ron looked faintly disgusted. "A boy? Who? And what for?"

She glared at him. "Do you really want the gory details, Ron? Because I'll be happy to share."

Harry was already digging through his bag. "No, no, that's all right," he assured. "Here. Go on – have fun. And… whatever you're doing, keep it to yourself, alright?"

"Thanks, Harry." She snatched the map from him and fled the Common Room.

* * *

She touched her wand to the parchment. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." When the map swam into focus she scoured it singlemindedly, checking all the solitary dots first, and before long she found what she was looking for in a hallway on the second floor. Draco Malfoy – alone.

She went to his hiding place and discovered that it was actually pretty ingenious. It was in a corridor that nobody really used, and invisible to passers-by anyway because you had to crawl behind a big stone statue to access the windowsill he was sitting in.

She decided not to just creep in there though; if somebody surprised him now he was likely to hex first and ask questions later. So, she knocked on the statue and said: "Malfoy?"

She could hear him jump. "What?" he snapped. "Who's that?"

"It's me – Hermione Granger. May I come in?"

He sucked in a breath and she could have sworn she heard a sniffle. Well-concealed, but still… "Sorry, no Mudbloods allowed. Get lost."

"Knock it off, Malfoy," she said. "There's nobody here to impress. I just want to talk a minute – let me in."

"Talk?" Now she was _sure_ she heard him sniffling. "What do you mean, talk?"

"I'm coming in." She ducked under the statue's arm and crawled in, half-expecting to be cursed, and then stood up to crack her back. "There.  See – it's just me."

"Wonderful."

The space was small enough that she couldn't give him as much distance as he probably wanted, but she sat on the opposite corner of the windowsill at least.  "Are you all right?" she asked without any further chitchat. "After what Professor Moody did. I _don't_ approve, and I just wanted to come check that you weren't hurt."

He looked at her with utter noncomprehension. "That I wasn't hurt?" he repeated stupidly.

"Yes. You could have been.  So someone should definitely have checked on you, but it didn't look as if you were running off to the hospital wing and, and I thought instead you'd run off someplace alone." She knew she was talking too fast, too much, too nervous… but she couldn't stop. "And here you are.  And you _are_ bleeding," she added, trying to sound apologetic for being so right.

Malfoy swiped at his temple, where blood was winding down from his hair to pool in his ear. "I'm fine."

She rolled her eyes. "It's one thing to play tough in front of people whose opinions you care about," she lectured, "But I know you don't give a hoot about me. You've got a cut on your head. Let me heal it for you."

"Stay away from me," he burst out, turning to press his back against the wall and face her squarely. He had his wand out. "I mean it."

"I'm not going to hurt you."

"I'd like to see you try," he sneered.

"Don't be an idiot, Malfoy. You know me. I'm not going to-... to _do_ anything."

"You say that, but you're pointing a wand at me," he managed, still pressed tight against the wall. He was fighting the urge to flinch – and losing.

Magic was incredibly powerful, Hermione knew that… but still, the sight of big bad Draco Malfoy cowering in fear of a girl with a stick made her want to giggle.

She lowered her wand and he relaxed. "I told you," she said calmly, "I think what Professor Moody did was wrong and I'd like to do something about it.  That's all.  Let me help you – I can close cuts. Turn your head."

He scooted a little closer, wand still out. She didn't move, even when he dug it in under her chin. "If this is _anything_ other than that," he began, almost a whisper. "If you do something bad to me – or if you tell your friends something I don't like the sound of, or if you even _think_ -"

"Malfoy, I told you-"

" _Shut up._ " Emotion drove a few sparks from the end of his wand, and it burned her.  She squeaked and pulled away.

He withdrew the wand. "Sorry – that was an accident."

"I know," she said, rubbing at the spot, "It's fine." Then she smiled and pushed her hair back, now that it was apparent he was going to cooperate. "Listen, you don't have to worry about any of that. You know perfectly well it's not my style to hex people when they're not paying attention. And you know I won't tell anybody – my friends wouldn't appreciate this any more than yours. So. Turn your head and let me concentrate."

After a long fierce staring contest he turned his head and shifted his hair around to show her the cut.

"Okay. Hold still, this won't hurt." She drew her wand over it, muttering an incantation. The bleeding stopped on the first pass, and the cut closed up neatly on the second. "There.  All done."  He moved away without saying thank you, and the awkward silence made her babble.  "You'll want to put something on it though, so it doesn't scar. There's a couple of potions that-"

"I know," he interrupted, sounding annoyed. "Unlike your idiot friends, _I_ pay attention in Potions."

"Oh- sorry." She gave him a flustered smile, but he didn't smile back.  He was stiff and tense, which meant he was feeling uncomfortable. Well, good. She had just done difficult magic for him as a favor, he _should_ be re-thinking his stupid prejudices now. "Anywhere else?" she said. "That _can't_ be it – you hit the ground hard. More than once."

His mouth twisted. "Thanks for the reminder, you bitch."

The venom in his voice was totally unexpected (as was his language!), and she drew back. Then she glared. "Stop it. Acting like a baby does not help. I _said_ , is there anywhere else I can heal for you? Come on," she pressed, "Unless you'd prefer to show your friends – and remind _them_?"

She kept her face neutral while he searched it, for _something_ … and eventually he decided that whatever he was afraid of wasn't there. "My shoulder," he said at last. "I think there's something on my shoulder."

"I'll look at it.  Take your robes off and let me see."  Again he gave her a strange look but didn't thank her - but what did she expect of Malfoy - and again she had to say _something_ to fill the air.   "Just do it, don't worry, I'm not going to jump your bones.  Even if we didn't hate each other, you're not my type. No offense."

"Yeah? And what _is_ your type?" he asked, as he slid his robes off his shoulders and unbuttoned his shirt. "Red hair and freckles? You've got lots of them to choose from, at least."

She could hear that it was _empty_ taunting though, reflexive really, no malice in his words for a change.   So she shrugged and answered in kind.  "Maybe I don't choose. Maybe I just have all of them at once. Now shut up and show me- _Malfoy!_ "

"What?" he said, craning his neck to try and look over his shoulder. "What's the matter?"

"Eugh! You've got a, an enormous-… oh awful, ick, up on your back." She stopped wincing long enough to take a closer look, and tried to give a more adult diagnosis.  "It's just a scrape on your shoulderblade," she reported, "But it's huge and there's gravel all inside it." She hovered around it, not sure where to touch.  "Your skin's completely shredded off - how could you not feel this?"

He shrugged, with the other shoulder. "I felt it."

"Well, I-… ugh, I don't know any spells for scrapes. I mean, it's not the same as bruises or closing a cut… do you know any?"

"Do I look like a mediwitch to you?"  He sighed.  "Fine.  Just do _something -_ just spell the rocks out of it and it'll scab up on its own eventually."

"Spell the rocks out? I don't know how, and I'm not going to _make up_ some spell, I'm not going to try something out for the first time on a live human."   _Even a Malfoy._   "Look, how about I just treat it the Muggle way? I have a First Aid kit."

"A what?"

She took it from her bag to show him and explain.   He made a face and muttered: "The  _Muggle_ way. Wonderful."

First she used her wand to wet a bit of her sleeve and then hesitated over the wound. "This will hurt," she warned, and then brushed the bigger bits of rock out by hand. He tensed and hugged his knees but didn't say anything. "Sorry, sorry," she kept saying, until he snapped at her to shut up.

After that she spelled water to wash out what dirt was left, and then used a Drying Charm on his shirt.  Instead of thanking her, he just muttered, "Why bother?  I'm going to throw it away anyway."

She rolled her eyes and ignored him. "Now: I don't have any antibacterial ointment on me, all I have is alcohol, so we're going to have to use that."

"Anti-what?"

"Muggles make different products to protect against infection," she explained. "The only one I have with me is going to sting terribly. I'm sorry about that, but I don't have anything better, so you're just going to have to cope with it."

"I don't care. Clean it now with whatever you've got, and I'll get proper potions later. Why do you have Muggle medicine, anyway?"

It was because Harry and Ron found new ways of getting into trouble faster than she could learn ways of getting them out, but Malfoy was being sneery, so instead she told him: "So that I can torment patients I don't like."  She soaked some gauze in alcohol, happily.  "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you scream."

"If I-? What _is_ that stuff? I can smell it from here."

"I told you what it is. Deep breath, okay? One, two, _three_."

Malfoy screamed his head off, which was really more satisfying than a thank-you anyway.

"You're welcome," she told him.

* * *

The End.

Let me know what you think!


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